


Death Squared

by Karieauthoress (ksrandomme), ksrandomme



Series: Deja Vu [3]
Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-23
Updated: 2009-03-23
Packaged: 2017-10-19 11:03:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/200126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ksrandomme/pseuds/Karieauthoress, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ksrandomme/pseuds/ksrandomme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Contract killers methodically covering their tracks in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Jim and Blair, all while Blair receives cryptic messages from his guides. It's no wonder he's beginning to feel the strain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death Squared

_*||Swirling mists, visions that throw him in and out of scenes. Blair is assaulted with emotions as well as sight. Trapped in time and space, he is helpless to control the chaos around him._

 _He sits in a courtroom, Jim on the stand being badgered by an attorney._

 _“It was 11:15 at night. The killer is the equivalent of two football fields away and there are no lights on the streets. How could you possibly make a positive identification of Mr. Juno, the way he cuts his hair, the clothes he was wearing, the weapon he was using, on in fact anything at all?”_

 _Jim looks to Blair for help, who is slowly shaking his head. His eyes drift closed only to snap open again with another scene. This time Jim and Simon are in the Captain’s office and Simon is yelling at Jim._

 _“Why didn’t you tell me Juno was 200 yards away?”_

 _Another blink and this time a dark haired woman is accusing Jim in Simon’s office._

 _“You don’t think I know what happened? A cop gets killed. You don’t have a case so you decide to help it alone.”_

 _Jim attempts to deny but the woman carries on._

 _“Only you got caught. And now you’ve made the entire police department look bad.”_

 _Blair closes his eyes in despair, but the visions aren’t done with him and he opens his eyes to scenes of Jim losing control of his senses. His taste and hearing slipping away. His hands going numb. But he won’t tell Blair._

 _“Would you just forget it? I am not going to be some human lab rat for you to prod and probe every time something goes wrong. You got that?”_

 _Blair shrugs at him uncomfortably. “I’m just trying to help.”_

 _Jim snarking to him in a hospital setting._

 _“Well, I have had these cravings.”_

 _“Yeah?”_

 _“Last night I ordered pizza – pepperoni and 30-weight motor oil.”_

 _Blair sighs and the dreams move on. Now he’s being blinded by media cameras in a dark warehouse. Now he’s ordered by Simon to turn over his observer credentials. Now he’s in a car with Jim arguing about illegal wiretaps._

 _Snatches of conversation slip past him and he tries in vain to catch something to hold on to. Something to understand._

 _“You violated his civil rights, for God’s sakes!”_

 _“Don’t say it.” “Say what? That you’re an arrogant, self-destructive schmuck?”_

 _“Right. You broke the law, got suspended – you’re self-destructing and you don’t realize it.”_

 _“Whoa, whoa, since when did you become my shrink?”_

 _“Damn you for what you done. He was more than just my brother. He was the other half of my soul.”_

 _Blair felt nausea taking hold. The images were swirling so fast that he felt like he was on some Merry-go-round being spun by a demented Carnie. He swallows convulsively as he finds himself inside someone else’s mind. He hears a gun shot. His eyes follow the bullet. Towards Jim at some fairgrounds. Now towards the woman with the dark hair as she drops her phone. Now into the back of an unsuspecting kid on a motorbike... where it finally seems to find its mark. The kid topples from the slowly moving vehicle and the spreading pool of red swamps his mind's eye as ... ||*_

o-O-o

Blair opened his eyes with a snap. For a moment he felt confused and disoriented. He glanced at his lap, recognized his journal and the pen in his hand. He suddenly remembered that he was at home, Larry in his cage, and he was sitting on his couch catching up on his thoughts. The vision was fading rapidly as reality again took hold.

“Yeah, and don’t think I didn’t notice how different this one was compared to the last. Just who’s idea was it to send me on that ride?”

An amused chuff sounded from the shadows and drew Blair’s attention to his right where the wolf sat on its haunches, and appearing to laugh at him delightedly. Blair glared at him for a moment until the shadows melted and the panther stepped forward looking rather smug. Blair groaned.

“Oh so this is your doing, is it?”

The cat didn’t answer in any way or form, just faded out again with the wolf as the phone rang. Blair reached over and answered with a distracted air.

“Hello?”

 _**”Hey Sandburg. I’ve got an informant to meet with tonight.”**_ Jim sighed on the other end of the line. Blair knew what was coming next. It was the third time this week.

“Hi, yeah… no big deal Jim. We can test your night vision some other time.” Blair promised himself that he would not sound irritated with the Sentinel. He was pleasantly surprised when Jim interrupted him.

 _**”No wait! I was thinking you could come with me.”**_

Blair sat up further. “Oh?”

 _**”I got a call to meet my guy in the warehouse district in an hour.”**_

Blair glanced out the window and noticed the lateness of the evening. He smiled. “I can meet you at the loft in fifteen minutes.”

 _**”Meet you there.”*_ * agreed Jim as he hung up. Blair stared at the phone for a moment, an involuntary shudder passing through his body. He glanced at Larry, who was now sleeping, and decided that things would be all right for the night. He looked down at his journal and read what he had been thinking before mentally checking out.

 _*Jim is making some noise about taking me to the local firing range. But how to tell him that, especially after last week’s run in with the Sunrise Patriots, I definitely do not want to have to tote a gun around like Dirty Harry.*_

Blair sighed as he reread what he had been thinking. Guns… and then he has visions of people being shot. He shook his head. His doubts would have to wait for another day.

o-O-o

Blair closed his eyes for what he counted to be the fourth or fifth time. Ellison was determined to get his point across, but Blair would not be swayed. They sat together in Jim’s truck in an alleyway that was on the other side of the warehouse district from his own home. Blair stared out the window as Jim launched into yet another round of the same argument.

“All I’m saying is that it would be nice to know that if I got into a jam, that you can cover my back.”

Blair took a deep breath. They had gone over this in every direction. “Look, I understand all this Jim. I will back you in every way possible. Just don’t ask me to carry a gun.”

Jim opened his mouth to object, but Blair over rode him. “And don’t worry man, it’s not that I am against defending myself or anyone with me, I just don’t like guns. Besides, if last week’s invasion of the station and my little part in it didn’t clue you in, I’m good at improvisation.”

Jim nodded reluctantly as he tilted his head to the side. “Somebody’s coming.”

From behind them came the sound of a motorbike, which parked its self in front of Jim’s truck. Jim smirked as Blair, who smirked back as Jim opened his door.

“It’s him.” He left the truck and started over to the rider, who was removing his helmet. Blair sighed and turned his attention to the street outside of the truck. He wasn’t exactly happy to be there. What he had hoped would be an excellent opportunity to test Jim’s vision perception at night, had turned very quickly into an argument for Blair packing a weapon. He shuddered to think what his mother would say about it. Yet another item to keep out of the Reader’s Digest version he was compiling for when she came to visit, hopefully in another year or two.

A soft growl to his right snapped his attention back to the present and Blair focused on his surroundings again. Especially Jim and the motorbike rider. And the small red dot that had just appeared on the rider’s back. Jim, to, had noticed the dot center on the rider’s back just as he was riding away.

“Danny!”

Blair watched helplessly as a gunshot rang out, the bullet striking the rider, who fell from the bike. His head swam with remembered vision. The biker, the shot, the shooter now aiming for…

Without further thought, Blair dove out of the truck, cell phone in hand. He rushed to where Jim was trying to hold the biker together and screaming for him to breath. Blair snapped open the phone and automatically began to dial.

“I need an ambulance and police at Delmonico Cannery on Grand Boulevard! We’re at the corner of 10th and Grand.” Blair watched as Jim began CPR, determined to do whatever it took. Blair closed his eyes to beg all gods and goddesses he knew. Into the phone he demanded, “Hurry this guy’s been shot!”

“Come on buddy!” Jim cried out. Blair leaned forward to check for a pulse. He found none and moved to place his hand on Jim’s shoulder. Jim looked up and met Blair’s sorrowful gaze. He must have read the truth in Blair’s eyes as he stopped his efforts threw back his head and screamed.

“No! Not him! No!”

o-O-o

Jim had gone with Danny Choi to the hospital, leaving Blair with the truck and a severe case of heartache. He had gotten some of the particulars from Simon, but it still hurt to think that this young man, who had looked up to Jim for most of his adult life, was now dead from an assassin’s bullet to the back. Cowardly, dickless… cold. Jim said he had seen the shooter before Blair had bailed the truck, but then he had gone off with the body to be sure that it was taken care of.

He had also told Blair that he needed to file a report and get the guy who had done the shooting as soon as possible. So Blair had left with the truck, dropping it off at the loft and hiding the keys under the floor mat. Then he had gotten in his own car and driven home. He hoped that he could sleep for a few hours before classes, but his dreams were plagued with remembered visions of the shooting. Over and over the bullet slamming into Danny’s back, over and over Jim screaming. All just a nightmare that wouldn’t go away.

The next day he had tried to pay attention in class, dealing with the multitude of lame questions from students who had not read the material assigned for one excuse or another. He was relieved that he had no office hours and went straight home, hoping for a message from Jim. There was none, and Blair was left at loose ends, with his thoughts and his rage. And the Guides.

“Some help you two were. You let that kid die, and for what?”

The panther glanced to the wolf, who settled down to lay his head on his paws and gaze up at Blair with sorrowful eyes. Blair shook his head.

“Don’t sit there and say that some things can’t be avoided in life. I know that… but this was just… cold... stone cold man.”

The panther growled low in its throat, but Blair ignored it.

“No I am not going to calm down about this. I can’t be calm about this, cause there was nothing I could do about it… except sit and watch as that bullet slammed into him. And Jim, gods he looked so damned lost. How about a better warning, eh?”

The panther yawned heavily, as if to say that he really couldn’t be bothered at this time. The wolf stared back at his human counterpart with something akin to sadness in his deep blue eyes. Blair rambled on.

“I keep making mistakes in this gig, I’m beginning to wonder if I made the right choice in the first place. Why do I keep trying? Can you tell me that?

Silence from the feline and canine. Blair began to pace in the middle of the room, Larry on one side in his cage, the Guides sitting side by side on the other, and muttered dejectedly. “I mean, when I thought that this was just a dream, a vision, I thought that things would be radically changed as time went on. But now you’ve gone and let some cop get killed, and Jim is hounding me about the damn gun thing, and Naomi is going to cough up kittens when she finds out who I’m hanging around with these days.”

He sat on the edge of his couch, the Guides in full view. “And I have noticed that Jim doesn’t trust me completely, no matter how hard I try. Tests are ignored, or scoffed in favor of deep meaningful discussions of my becoming more like a cop and less like the teacher I’m supposed to be. “

He sighed, “I can’t cope with this. If he asked me tomorrow could I keep doing this, I would have to say no. He’s got very little control, and he’s letting his feelings get in the way of his actions. He doesn’t feel like practicing today, so let’s go to the park and get a hotdog. I don’t think I can come in for that testing today, Sandburg. I have a late shift this afternoon, Sandburg. Sorry, Sandburg, but I don’t see how this can help. GODS!”

Blair stood abruptly and strode over to his fridge, taking a bottle of beer out for himself and popping the top quickly. He stared at the panther. “Do you think this could get any worse?”

The panther stretched and stood smoothly. He leaned over wolf, who had apparently fallen asleep during Blair’s tirade, and then strolled over to Blair's side, leaning against his leg. The pale blue eyes of the cat met Blair's and a searing vision of a blond flashed across his mind that was accompanied by sensations that left him cold and shaking. Her piercing blue eyes promising things he didn't want to think about.

"Oh... yeah." Blair said and swallowed around a suddenly dry throat. "I remember her vaguely... not one of the better moments of the dream walk if I remember things rightly."

The cat nodded, then returned to his companion’s side, laying beside him in the near darkness. Blair sighed as he finished off the beer in a few swallows and began to lock up for the night. Larry had also fallen asleep and Blair thought that sounded like a good idea. “Tomorrow maybe I can look for a way to help Jim turn these senses off. Maybe if he thinks I am trying that, at least he might be a bit more understanding and let me research him better. If I don’t understand these senses of his, then I can’t very well take them away, can I?”

Blair climbed into bed, not noticing the accusing eyes of the cat as he melted into the shadows of the night.

o-O-o

Blair struggled not to sigh in exasperation. “Why didn’t you call me last night?”

Jim, walking beside him and opening the door to the precinct asked, “And say what? Hey Sandburg, come on over, I can’t taste the beer?”

Blair snorted once, not attempting to answer. Finally he replied, “I’m just here to help, Jim. If you ever feel that something is off, you can call me. I might have an answer.”

Jim remained silent for a moment and Blair supposed that the man was thinking over his open offer. Finally he smiled at Blair.

“Ok, Chief. I’ll try to remember that.”

He might have wanted to say more but Carolyn had just marched up behind him. “Jim!”

Blair whispered to Jim, “Look out, angry Ex-wife alert.” Jim glared back at him but said nothing as he turned to Carolyn.

“Hi Carolyn, how are you?”Taking the first step in greeting sort of took the wind out of her sails a bit as she slowed to stand beside Blair. She nodded to Blair first with a tight smile, then continued to explain to Jim her latest troubles.

“Hi Jim, I’ve been better. I got this in this morning’s mail. It’s from the IRS. Apparently, we owe a penalty on some back taxes from when we were married.”

Jim read the letter. “4,000 dollars?”

Blair whistled lightly. “Man that is a chunk of change…”

Carolyn opened her mouth to agree when a dark haired, Hispanic woman swept in from the other end of the hall and planted herself directly in front of Jim, blocking out Carolyn and Blair. With gushing sounds of praise, she led Jim a little ways from the others. Caro watched this with an air of surprise. Blair rolled his eyes dramatically.

“Nice,” snarked Blair. Carolyn sighed.

“Yeah about as nice as a letter from the damn IRS.” She replied. Blair glanced back at the letter.

“This is over two years ago, that means it’s likely not all your fault. I’d have your lawyers look into it.” Blair commented. Carolyn looked at him and shrugged.

“Worth a shot.” She replied. Jim, possibly overhearing their conversation, suddenly looked up and noticed the frosty gaze of Carolyn looking over the head of the dark haired woman. Blair, on the other hand, merely acted bemused by the situation. He winced as he realized what had happened, and brought the woman back to them.

“Um, I’m so sorry. Beverly, this is Blair Sandburg.” Jim tried not to look sheepish. Blair grinned as Beverly shook his hand.

“Beverly Sanchez, Assistant D.A. Nice to meet you.” She replied with a smile on her face.

Blair smiled back, “You too.”

“And Lieutenant Carolyn Plummer.” Jim shrugged, unable to say more. Carolyn smiled as graciously as she could and shook Beverly’s hand. Beverly’s face faltered a bit as she came to recognize the name.

“Oh, of course. Plummer. Well, I guess I should be going. Nice to meet you both. Jim, I’ll see you at the arraignment later?” She turned to leave. Jim nodded once and added.

“Sandburg and I will be there.”

She nodded once more, and was gone. Jim turned back to Carolyn, and just to prove to Blair that his hearing was fine he said, “Carolyn, I’ll send it to my lawyer and let him deal with it. Don’t worry, ok?”

Carolyn took a deep breath and sighed. Finally she looked back up at Jim. “Fine, I’ll let you deal with it then. If you need me, you know where I am.”

And with that, Carolyn turned and left. Jim glanced at Blair, who was sniggering lightly. Jim lightly bopped Blair on the back of the head. “You got something to say Junior, out with it.”

“Man, you love playing with fire, don’t you? First Vera and now this?”

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jim asked suspiciously.

Blair just shook his head, "Man you are hopeless - utterly and completely hopeless - you know that?"

o-O-o

Blair sat back on the bench with Jim, watching as Beverly stated her case to the judge with the defense attorney and Juno in attendance. Juno glanced back at Blair and Jim with a smug look on his face. Blair wanted nothing more than to wipe that look off the coward’s face with his fist.

Jim watched Juno watching him and just smiled when Beverly called his name. Blair sat forward as Jim stood to take the stand. The overwhelming sense of dread that was flushing through him did little to ease the knot in his stomach, and for some reason he felt the desire to leave. But he couldn’t leave, Jim needed him. For what, he didn’t know, but it was important. Finally he forced himself to pay attention to the Defense Attorney as he asked for details of the shooting.

“Now, Detective Ellison, Officer Choi was shot and killed at 11:15 pm, in front of the old Delmonico Cannery on Grand Boulevard, between 10th and 12th streets, is that right?”

Jim sat back, as if in thought. Blair froze for an instant, remembering the future through his own eyes.

“No, no, no…” he muttered. Sentinel soft he whispered to Jim, “Too far, man, no human can see that far.. fudge, fumble… shit… um… I called it in to 10th, not 12th… so we could have been closer.”

Jim blinked twice, and flicked his gaze to Blair for an instant before returning to the Defense Attorney. “Actually the truck was facing 12th, but we were clearly just north of 10th street. We did fall back from the original target zone, only prudent when someone is shooting at you. That was why we were so far back when back-up arrived.”

“I see,” the attorney fumbled a moment… distance being iffy, he had to go a different tactic. Blair saw the man plotting and got ticked. His face screwed up into a hateful expression as he came up with obfuscation. Dropping his head so that his hair would hide his features in a concealing curtain, Blair outlined for Jim his idea.

“You had sniper training in the Rangers, right? And they wouldn’t take anything but the best – and made sure you could handle any conditions. You have rather acute eyesight. You can submit yourself for tests.” Blair took the chance to quickly peek through his hair at Jim. The older man had his head cocked in the way that told Blair he was hearing him loud and clear and he wasn’t objecting to anything either. The testing thing had been a bit of a gamble, but so far so good.

“So yeah, the guy was in shadow, but right when you turned trying to see where the shot had come from, headlights from a nearby car had to hit him, right? So you could tell that he was wearing something dark up to his neck, and that his head was dark, but his face was brightly lit for the second or two it took to ID him.”

Then Blair was out of time, he raised his head as the defense was asking for Jim's description of the night in his own words. Jim's eyes met Blair's glancingly and he smirked. Blair felt he'd been sent a message, 'Confirmation orders understood sir.'

"I saw the shooter, he was at a third story window and mostly in shadow, but it was only about 100 - 150 yards and I could still see his face. I've had to cope with worse in the past when I was an Army Ranger." Jim sat up straighter. "As a Ranger I was tested and trained in numerous capacities, one of which was as a sniper when they found I had unusually acute eyesight. Those particular tests are sealed - national security and need to know protocols - but I will submit to tests now to prove it if I have to. But that is the reason I can positively identify the shooter as Tommy Juno."

The defense attorney was good, he was pushing the skeptical angle like no tomorrow. He asked, "You're absolutely certain the man you saw shoot Officer Choi was Tommy Juno?

Jim was getting a bit frustrated. He knew this was how court worked but he didn't like to have his word questioned. "Yes, as I said before I saw him clearly. There was enough light to see that he was wearing something covering him to his neck, like a turtleneck. And due to my time in the Rangers I can tell you he was armed with a knight .30 caliber sniper rifle, one fitted with a combined starlight night-vision scope and laser sight. Or something close enough for it to not make any difference."

At such a firm testimony, especially with such a credible witness, the defense attorney was powerless. The judge presiding over the proceedings on the other hand wasn't. Judge Perlman very firmly bound the case over to trial.

Blair breathed a huge sigh of relief as Juno was carted off to jail. Jim squeezed his arm and grinned like a loon as they left the courtroom and headed out of the building. The media was in frenzy for news. Jim didn’t want to speak to them just then, so with several ‘No Comments’ they sidestepped the circus and headed for the precinct.

o-O-o

Jim sat on the edge of Simon’s desk, a contented smile across his face while Blair talked with Simon.

“You should have seen it, Simon. Jim was so cool in the witness stand. There’s no way that Juno walks without bail.” Blair beamed at his Sentinel, who ducked his head with a sheepish grin.

“Just those 11 witnesses, Chief. Juno was at that benefit the night of the shooting, or he’s paid a lot of people to lie for him.” Jim reminded. Blair scowled as he stuck his tongue out at Jim. Simon sighed.

“Either way, we have him for at least 24 hours. Time enough for you two to find something.”

At that moment, Beverly took the time to breeze into Simon’s office, a huge grin pasted on her own face. “Unbelievable! I thought for sure that the defense attorney had you there with the distance thing, but… you didn’t tell me you had sniper training!”

Jim smiled thoughtfully as he glanced over at Blair, who ducked his head to hide behind his curtain of hair. “Yeah well, that was back in my Army days. Not something I advertise, you know.”

“Yes,” agreed Beverly, “But surely you understand that we have to get you tested so that it holds up in court.”

Blair grinned craftily. “Yeah, Jim… and you need to be tested for the night vision thing too…”

Jim glared at Blair for a moment, realizing that he’d been had by the younger man. Then the glare faded and Blair figured he had been forgiven the snark. He was going to get his test results, one way or another.

o-O-o

"What are you doing?"

Blair had slipped into the unmarked vehicle and froze. Reality was twisting back on him again and he was faced with the vision he had hoped to avoid.

Jim glanced up, but wouldn't meet Blair's eyes. Alarms rang in the younger man's head as Jim said in an overly casual tone, "Oh hey, there you are. Glad you got my message..."

Blair repeated his question, hoping this time to get an answer. "What are you doing Jim?"

An irritated snarl crossed Jim's face clueing Blair in to exactly what the Sentinel was feeling. "Juno got out on bail this morning - seems those 11 eyewitnesses at the benefit the other night give him the benefit of the doubt. They made the case shaky enough that Beverly couldn't hold him any longer anyway. So now if I want to put him back away I have to find something on him, something airtight."

"But what are we doing _*here*_ , Jim. What is this?" Blair asked, needing the detective to clarify what he was doing in his own words. He couldn't afford to jump to conclusions, there was too much at stake.

"What does it look like Chief? I'm getting the evidence that we need to put Tommy Juno away for good!" Jim replied with exasperation. Blair glared at him.

"By using an illegal wiretap that you know Simon would never have allowed to listen in on his conversations? What's the sense Jim? Nothing you record could be used in a court of law with no warrant. You would have been better off just using your senses to get the information you needed to set up a sting of some sort."

Jim slammed a hand against the dash and growled. "Listen up boy scout, Juno killed Danny. And he's going down for that!"

"Yeah, but you keep this path and so are you!" Blair exhorted, wanting so badly to yell and hit Jim upside the head to make him see sense. He was not giving up, it was too important "Jim man, this is not what I signed on for. I am not going to stand by and watch you self-destruct. I'll back you with the senses, and I'll back you pretty much anywhere else on the job, but this... it's morally wrong, and you know it."

For a minute they just stared at each other, the words laying between them like a chasm. Then Jim's face darkened and he snarled, "Fine, get out. There's the door."

Blair opened the door roughly. Anger was seeping from every pore as he turned back to face Jim one last time, "Something to think about Jim - would Danny want you here, doing this? Would he want you breaking the law for him?"

Jim's face didn't change and Blair, fed up, got nasty. "Oh yeah, I bet Danny would be real impressed by his Big Brother cop right now eh? Bye Jim."

Blair stood up and got out of the car and slammed the door behind him. He headed back to where he had left his own car parked around the block and hoped he was doing the right thing. Jim just stared after him in disbelief.

It wasn’t that he was walking slow… it was just that he was walking not so fast. One ear on Jim’s car, he silently held his breath. He had just reached the corner, which was only half a block away, when he heard the car start up. He smiled sheepishly with his head down and picked up the pace to turn the corner and appear to be headed towards his car.

Jim soon drove beside him, slowing his borrowed vehicle to match pace with Blair. They were silent for a few feet as Blair kept his face as neutral as possible. Finally, Jim broke the silence.

“You’re right.”

Blair ignored him, kept walking. Jim continued to pace him. “What do you want, Sandburg. It was a stupid move. I wasn’t thinking.”

Blair finally came to a halt, a few feet from a trash can. He turned to Jim, who had stopped his vehicle and was leaning out the driver’s side window, staring at him. They stood silently for a few moments, like a child’s game of blink on larger scale. Finally, Blair stepped forward, hand held out. Jim looked up at him. Then he nodded, reached into the car, and plucked the tape reel out of the machine and handed it over to the observer without a word.

With a smile, Blair took the reel, walked a step or two towards the front of the car, placed the tape under the wheel, and waved Jim to roll forward, then when he heard the satisfying crunch, waved him to roll back. He scooped up the resulting trash and stepped back on the sidewalk to toss the mess in and walk away. Jim grinned at him as he put the car back in drive. He gassed it just a bit to come even with Blair again.

“Meet me at the loft?” he asked hopefully.

Blair nodded. “Yeah man. I think we need to talk.”

o-O-o

Together, they stood on the balcony, a beer in hand and the sun setting ahead of them across the sound. It was an incredible sight; one that Blair wouldn’t mind seeing again some time. Jim sipped his beer in silence. They had been that way, silent, since arriving at the loft some time before. Blair was allowing it, only because he needed the time to get his own thoughts in order. But now the sun was going down and they still had much to talk about.

“Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours Ellison.”

Jim glanced at him, caught the tight gaze tossed his direction. He sighed as he moved back into the loft, leaving the sunset behind him. Blair followed, wondering if he had miscalculated in asking that question, any question too soon. But when he sat on the couch across from the Sentinel, he was rewarded for his patience.

“Danny lost his dad when he was little. I was in college, needed to do something, be helpful. I became his Big Brother.” Jim shrugged.

Blair smiled. “I always loved that program,” he confessed. Jim smiled with him, although faintly, before going on.

“Yeah, he was a great kid.” Jim said with a sad smile. Then almost out of the blue he added, “I got him in the Police Academy, you know. He loved police work, that and sailing. The two things in this world that made him feel the most alive.” A great shuddering sigh worked its way up from deep inside the man to burst out with intensity. “I lost him Blair, I had him in my hands and I couldn’t save him.”

Blair leaned forward and laid a reassuring hand on Jim’s arm. “You saved him once. When he was a kid, you became his focal point. His rock. And you believed that you had to keep that up no matter what.”

“And I failed!” Jim stood suddenly, anger leaching from every pore.

“Yes, but there was nothing you could have done differently. Neither of us could have done anything different in that situation. It was out of our hands, Jim.” Blair stood and tried to take Jim by the hand, tried to lead him back to the couch. But it seemed Jim still had demons to face.

“I know that, Sandburg. Don’t you think I know that already?” Jim snarled. Then his voice changed to despair, “God, I had him in my hands, Chief! And Juno came in and snatched him away – right out of these useless hands.”

Blair simply stood, unable to know when to touch, when to sooth, until Jim turned panic stricken eyes back to him. “My hands… Chief I can’t feel my hands!”

“Easy Jim, it’s ok. Deep breaths come on.” Blair coaxed, soothed and gently led the struggling Sentinel back to the couch, laid a reassuring hand on his chest and talked him into the deep, cleansing breaths to calm his heart rate.

Soon there was only the sound of deep breathing and even sighs as both men worked to calm down. Eventually Blair began to massage Jim’s hands, his voice dropping into a soft soothing caress on the sense of hearing as his eyes locked on to Jim’s. Finally, Jim took a deep, shuddering breath and relaxed totally.

Another minute and his eyes opened, electric blue orbs locking onto Blair’s bright blues. Both men breathed in synch for a while before Blair ventured to speak. “How’s the sense of touch now?”

Jim swallowed. “Better… I can feel my fingers again… What the hell was that?”

Blair sighed and leaned back. His eyes slitting to half mast as he regarded Jim thoughtfully. Should he? Yeah, probably wouldn't find a better time.

“Jim, you would call yourself a man dedicated to the ideas of honor, duty, respect right? These things are all more than just words to you; they are living and breathing ideals to live by.”

Jim nodded, his eyes narrow. He was clearly wondering where Blair was going with this. Blair didn’t make him wait long.

“Well they could also be called your watch words. It’s all down to control, you demand it. And if you don’t have it – you get frustrated.” Jim shrugged, he couldn’t argue against that. Blair smirked and continued, “But see, that’s where the other half of your personality comes in – your passion. You my friend are a very passionate man.”

Now Jim did protest. “What? Sandburg-”

Blair cut him off knowing Jim was about to spout some utterly macho bullshit that was totally irrelevant to what he was talking about. “Jim shut up and listen to me before you get your panties in a bunch.”

Jim spluttered. Blair continued. “Caring, understanding, complex… you are multi-faceted. You live a precarious balance of passion and control. And your emotions are connected to your passion. So when you lose control, your passion slips up to fill the gap.”

Jim frowned slightly, but didn’t interrupt this time as Blair explained. “This case has you feeling like you’ve lost control in more than one way. You’ve lost someone close to you, close enough to have been family, and then even when you were able to arrest the person responsible – they managed to get out on bail. It’s no wonder your passion is flaring and your emotions are all out of whack. It sounds like you have something almost post traumatic going on…”

“Whoa, whoa, since when did you become my shrink?” snarled Jim.

“Since I minored in Psychology, and therefore I know whereof I speak, man.” Blair snarked back before plunging on. “Your head is being over ruled by the pain in your heart and the rest of your emotions are going to go from there. On top of all that you have to try and cope with all the extra stimulus that your senses bring in – it’s pretty easy to see why your control might slip and how.”

“My emotions are just fine, Sandburg. It’s these whacked out senses that are killing me here!” Jim growled. Blair sighed.

“Right, that’s why you nearly broke the law today with that illegal tap, and why you appear to be bucking for suspension – you could be self-destructing and not even realize it.” Blair sighed. “Now you tell me how all that is normal. Not out of character. Not over the top.”  
Jim groused for a moment, not wanting to accept facts as they were laid out. Blair bit back a snicker as he tried to imagine Jim as a five year old being told he couldn’t have cookies before dinner because they would ruin his appetite. Finally the big man appeared to completely bypass the problem and aimed straight for the solution questions. “So, what is all this crap about? And how do I fix it?”

Blair smirked to himself before moving on. “Well, just now, tell me what happened when you lost feeling in your hands? Remember, I want to know what you were thinking right before your touch cut out.”

"Why are you asking? You were here! I was talking about how Juno had.... oooh" Jim sat up straighter in his seat. His eyes grew large as he connected with Blair.

"Yeah - ohhh. You were thinking about how you couldn't hold on to Danny and he slipped away anyway. And what does that get you? No touch in your hands.” Blair leaned forward. “Now take it back to the other day, you and your hearing. Tell me about that one again.”

Jim sat back, his memories shining in his eyes. “I was talking to Beverly… she commented on the view, Sunday afternoons watching the boats on the bay. And I was talking about… Danny.”

The shine in his eyes turned into a full sheen as tears slowly built and spilled over. Jim didn’t make a sound. Blair did. He bit back a guttural sound of pure empathy and moved from the couch he was sitting on to sit on the other couch beside Jim. Stretching his arm over the back, Blair left the choice up to Jim if he wanted to take the simple physical comfort he was offering.

Jim took it. He sagged sideways and snugged his shoulder underneath Blair’s raised arm, letting his head fall backwards to rest on Blair’s broad shoulder. Then he stared blindly upwards and let the hot tears flow, not making any attempt to wipe them away before they soaked warmly into Blair’s shirt. Eerily silent the whole time, except for the occasional sub vocal whines from deep within his chest. Blair, not able to do anything, took to petting the older man. Stroking his hair with short soothing strokes, hoping to impart the same peace he had gotten when his mother had done the same for him.

Finally, after a significant amount of time had passed, Blair muttered slightly under his breath, “Last time we were here in this position, you almost fell asleep, man. Think we should break this up a bit.”

Jim snorted as he leaned back to look Blair in the eye. “Thank you… for, you know…”

“No problem, Big guy. But I think my arm is falling asleep, so if you wouldn’t mind…” Blair stifled a gasp as Jim sat up. The other man turned to take Blair’s arm in his hands, massaging the circulation back to normal. He glanced out the window and grimaced.

“God, what time is it?” He glanced at his watch. “11:52… I have to be in tomorrow to find another lead on Juno.”

Blair nodded and stood, his hand brushing his hair back off his forehead as he yawned hugely. “Geez, yeah… I got nothing tomorrow, it being Saturday and all, so I guess I can meet you there?”

Jim stood as well, one hand landing on Blair’s shoulder. “You sure you’re all right to drive this late at night, Sandburg?”

“Aw, come on man, I’m a college student. You know we live on caffeine, day old pizza and little sleep. I’ll be careful driving home… Promise.” Blair stuck up his left hand as he crossed his heart with the fingers of his right.

Jim grimaced again. "Well Chief, how about you humor me and stay, Just to make an old man rest easier." He moved over to a curtained area under the stairs and returned with a pillow and blanket.

Blair snorted. "Jim, man you are so not old. Pull another one."

Jim stood, pillow in one hand, blanket in the other and looked Blair straight in the eyes. "Will you stay?"

Blair rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Sheesh, you worry worse than a Jewish mother, and since I have one of those I know."

o-O-o

Blair sat up blinking the sleep from his eyes and tried to figure out what had woken him. Hunh, no rat traps going off... the surroundings weren't familiar... for a moment he was lost. Then he remembered he was at Jim's.

He pulled himself upright with a groan, and sat properly on the couch he had crashed on the night before. Looking around he found the loft silent, and it felt... peaceful. He could get used to this. Jim had good taste. And likely a hefty pocketbook, Blair could never afford anything like this.

His mind fuzzy still from sleep, Blair stood, the blanket he'd been using the night before falling to the ground at his feet. Dumbly he stared down at it while he wondered what he should do next.

One urge was making itself known, urgently. So Blair looked around for the bathroom and took care of the things he needed to do there and then when he was done, he came back out and another body part was making itself known.

His stomach was growling loudly. Well his mother had always told him that a good guest made himself at home, at least in the way that they picked up after themselves and contributed to the other chores. With that in mind, Blair tidied the couch he had used as a bed and then that done, moved to the kitchen to see what he could scrounge together into a meal.

By the time he finally heard sounds of returning consciousness from the upstairs bedroom, he had the coffee ready, eggs in the pan and toast popping up in the toaster.

"Hey Lazybones, come and get it! Eggs are almost done, I hope you like yours scrambled firm?" He yelled up to the upper level and was rewarded with a mussed head popping up over the rail that looked at him like he was some kind of alien. Blair laughed as the head disappeared and Jim shambled into the dining area still wearing his sleepwear. "Good morning. Have a seat, man."

Jim looked at him curiously, but was quick to take a plate of the eggs and a cup of coffee anyway. He sat down at the table and watched as Blair put his own plate together, and poured himself a coffee.

Blair sat down across from him and forked up a healthy amount of the eggs before Jim managed, "So uh, Chief? What’s with this little courtship ritual here? Something I should be wary of that you are afraid to tell me?”

Blair almost choked on the eggs in his mouth, but then swallowed them. He knew those words. Or they were very close to words he'd heard before in a setting very similar to the one they were in. And that meant... his gaze snapped around until he spotted them. The two barely there blurs in the corner of his eyes.

He growled and put his fork down. "It’s too early for this, I'm too tired."

Blair stood up and walked back over to the couch where he unceremoniously flopped down face first onto the blanket he'd just finished folding.

Jim utterly mystified watched his young friend, then figuring he wasn't going to eat them, stole his eggs.

o-O-o

Simon glared at Jim and Blair as they walked into his office later that day. Blair had been as good as his word and slept another hour before rushing to his home to shower and change. Jim, in the meantime had followed a few dead ends before they finally had met up at the station again.

Now Simon was glaring at Jim as if he had beat him out of the last jelly donut on the cart. Blair glanced around to see if there was anything that could give him a heads up as to the trouble. A vision or sign… black tip of a tail slinking away.

Seeing none, he focused on Simon again. The big man was not happy.

“Motor pool said you signed out one of their unmarks yesterday, and the Tech lab said that you returned a recorder of theirs without a tape in it. Care to explain, Detective?”

Jim paused a step, glancing back at Blair and then sitting very carefully in one of the seats in front of Simon’s desk. Blair shrugged as he took the other seat, after pulling it back a bit to sit just behind and to Jim’s right. Simon raised an eyebrow slightly, waiting.

Jim got right to the point. “I was not in my right mind yesterday, Simon. I nearly made a big mistake.”

“Mistake?” Simon interrupted. “What do you mean you nearly made a mistake, Jim?”

Jim shrugged, “I was a little out of my head, I was going to tap Juno’s phone… Sandburg here talked me out of it.”

Simon went from annoyed to enraged in a matter of moments. “Are you serious? Detective you were willing to violate Juno’s civil rights? You know that would have made this a federal case and taken it out of our hands!”

Turning his thunderous gaze on Blair, he continued, “And you, I would expect this sort of thing from Ellison, but you are supposed to be the smart one in this team!”

Blair sat up suddenly. “Hey! I am the smart one, as you so eloquently put it! I talked him out of it! If the Tech department wants to get snippy over a ruined tape, I’ll pay for it.”

“No you won’t Chief. I will. You were just making sure I didn’t catch anything inadvertently while we were arguing before you walked away.” Jim turned back to Simon. “He had me crush the tape under the tire so I couldn’t pull anything off of it while his back was turned. Then we went back to the loft and talked.”

Simon sat back, first having been sideswiped by Blair’s venomous outburst and followed by Jim’s remarks on the events of the previous day. Blair settled down a bit in his chair, fidgeting like a Bantam hen covering her chicks in the nest. Simon swiveled his attention to Jim at this last comment. “You talked?”

Jim glared at Simon. “I can talk, sir.”

“Yes, but when do you?” snarked the big man as he moved back behind his desk. Jim rolled his eyes as Blair snickered from behind. Simon smiled lightly. “So, during this talk, did anything come to light?”

“Besides the fact that Sandburg snores?” Jim quipped equally as light hearted as his Captain. Blair glared at him with a shocked expression.

“Hey, I could have gone home, there was nothing saying I had to sleep on your couch.” Blair huffed. Jim glanced back and laid a hand on his knee, squeezing gently.

“Yeah, and do you really think I could have slept after you had left? It was late, you were tired, the couch was available.” Jim reminded. Blair sighed and squeezed Jim’s hand where it lay. Then he turned back to Simon.

“The truth is, Captain, we were having some trouble with Jim’s senses soon after Danny died. But I think we’ve gotten it straightened out and should have no trouble now. Right Jim?” Blair turned back to the Sentinel who was nodding along with the explanation.

“He’s right, Simon. I nearly screwed up, he held firm and made me get my head out of my ass long enough to see the real problem. I’ll go down to Tech and pay for the replacement of the tape. And Sandburg and I will search for another lead in this case that takes me away from Juno for now. We’ll look a different direction and hope it brings us back to him.” Jim stood and opened the office door, ushering Blair out before him. Simon followed and gestured for them both to take their leave.

“Good, and you will keep me posted, correct?” Simon asked.

Jim nodded once more. “If I don’t, Sandburg will.”

Blair nodded and assured, “Right, Captain.”

o-O-o

Jim and Blair walked out of the station, headed for the café down the street to sit and have lunch before looking for new leads. Seated at a booth in the back, they stared at each other for a moment, the discussion in Simon’s office replaying in both their minds. Jim leaned forward slightly.

“Thanks… for, you know… not saying it.” He said haltingly. Blair cocked his head to the side.

“Say what? That you were being an arrogant, self-destructive schmuck? If I said it to Simon about you, I would have had to say the same thing about me. I mean, I could have gone along with you. And very nearly would have.” Blair shrugged. “But you didn’t, and neither did I, so I don’t have to say it, now do I?”

Jim smiled, ducking his head in an embarrassed manner. Blair grinned devilishly back at him. He held off further comment as the waitress brought around their orders, then resumed as she left.

“You haven’t been experiencing anything else weird lately, have you?” He asked before taking a bite of his salad. Jim leaned back, his eyes drifting around before finally settling back on Blair.

“Well, now that you mention it, I have had these cravings.”

Blair leaned forward a bit. “Yeah?”

Jim nodded. “Last night I wanted to order pizza… pepperoni and 30-weight motor oil.”

Blair glared at the straight faced joker across the table. “You know, that schmuck comment still stands.”

Jim chuckled as Blair continued to munch on his greens. They ate in companionable silence for a time until Blair finished his salad and sat back in the booth.

“So, plan of attack, what’s next?”

Jim swallowed his mouthful of food and relaxed back into his side of the booth, deep in thought. “Well, tapping Juno is out. And we have no real reason to go talk to O’Toole… Before Danny died, he mentioned Ray Kaminski suddenly having a not so silent partner.”

Blair nodded, sipping his iced tea. “So, maybe we should go talk to Kaminski, see what he can tell us about why he caved.”

“Yeah, I think so.” Jim took another bite of his burger as the waitress came with the check. Jim fished out his wallet, paid the tab, and waved for them to leave. Blair smirked.

“No time like the present?” he asked.

“Yeah, we’re running out of time with this case. Let’s move now while things are still fresh.”

o-O-o

It was just getting dark as Jim parked next to a house in the suburbs. Blair slipped out of the truck and waited for Jim to come around beside him before heading to the open garage. “So this is the guy? What’s his name again?”

Jim nodded. “Ray Kaminski. Danny told me that Mickey O’Toole was using threats against Kaminski’s family in order to strong-arm him into making O’Toole a silent partner.”

Jim stopped speaking as the man in the garage spoke urgently to the little girl and she ran into the house. Blair stationed himself just behind and to the left of Jim, his usual comfort zone when Jim was in cop mode. The man stepped forward to meet them as Jim began the introductions.

“I’m Detective Jim Ellison and this is Blair Sandburg. We’d like to ask you a few questions about Mickey O’Toole.” Jim showed his badge and Blair smiled as non-threateningly as possible. The man didn’t smile back.

Blair took note of the man’s stance, his clenching and unclenching of fists as he debated on standing around the garage or turning back to the sanctuary of his home. Jim must have noticed the same fear and tension as he subtly pushed Blair forward as Kaminski said, “If you’re here about my silent partner, then you understand why I’m too busy to talk right now.”

Blair laid a soft hand on the big man’s elbow, preventing him from shrugging it off and speaking as kindly as he could. "Mr. Kaminski, we know you are scared. You have every reason to be, they are threatening the most precious things you have. Your daughter, your wife, your life, but that isn't going to end - ever. Unless you help us."

Kaminski stood wavering when Jim stepped in for the push. "You want to spend the rest of your life under the thumb of Mickey O'Toole? You co-operate with us and we can make sure he never threatens, or hurts, you and yours ever again."

The businessman stood between the cop and grad student, indecision flickering across his face as he looked from one to the other. “You have to understand my position here,” he admonished Blair. The young man nodded as he softly stroked the arm beneath his hand.

“I do understand, man. But you gotta understand that as long as Mickey O’Toole is running his deal through you and others like you, if no one stands up to be counted, he will just continue to grow stronger.”

Kaminski sighed, “This morning, O’Toole came to see me to get his… salary. He asked if I’d heard about the undercover cop being killed.”

Jim nodded as Blair relaxed his hold on the man’s arm. Kaminski continued. “Then he says I might read in the paper tomorrow about somebody else who got in his way and thought she could make trouble for me.”

Blair glanced at Jim, the mention of a female victim causing his brain to spin. Jim glared at Kaminski. “Did you say ‘she’?”

Kaminski shrugged his shoulders. “That’s what he said, yeah.”

Blair felt that suddenly lost feeling as his mind replayed the vision of the bullet, fixing on the woman in the window, phone in her hand. The window shattering, the woman screaming. He jerked back suddenly when he felt Jim’s hand on his shoulder and heard his name urgently called from the cop’s lips.

“Sandburg, come on! We have to get to Beverly before it’s too late!”

Blair struggled to pull himself from the vision, his eyes still unfocused as he stumbled for the truck. The forlorn howl of the wolf met his ears and he again had the feeling that they were racing towards disaster. Would they be able to pull off a miracle this time? Or would it be another Danny all over again?

Jim was driving erratically as they hurried towards their night with destiny. He had a cell phone held to his ear as he called the Assistant DA’s office and attempted to navigate the streets of Cascade with the other. He swerved to miss one car and another truck as he waited for an answer. Blair swallowed convulsively as he struggled to deepen his breathing.

Finally, after the third turn, cutting off traffic and running another red light, Blair reached over and took the phone away from the cop, gesturing for him to pay attention to the road as he spoke to the woman who had just picked up the phone.

 _*#“Beverly Sanchez’ office.”#*_

“Hi yes, it Beverly in? This is Blair Sandburg, it’s about one of her cases!” He closed his eyes on the rushing traffic as he silently prayed the woman was still there. He didn't know what was scaring him more at the moment, Jim's driving or what they might be driving into.

 _*#”Sorry, she’s gone for the day.”#*_

Blair sighed loudly. “I need to know where she was going, it’s an emergency. Detective Ellison is trying to get a hold of her!”

There was a slight hesitation in the woman’s voice as she came back. _*#”She said she was going home.”#*_

Blair groaned, blinking his eyes against the intense feeling of being present and not. Too close, it was all running too close together. “I need an address,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. Jim glanced over to see Blair scribbling notes into his book before hanging up the phone and dialing another number. He turned his attention back to the road, for which Blair was eternally grateful as he punched in the last number to Beverly’s phone number.

When he got no answer to the phone, he cursed something under his breath, and tossed the phone back on the seat. With hand gestures, he guided Jim to the apartment building, bracing his feet on the dash as Jim slammed on the brakes.

They both exited the truck, Blair heading for the apartment building, and Jim scanning the area. Blair paused, turning back to his Sentinel and laying a hand on his arm. “Jim?”

Jim glanced towards the building across the way, and tilted his head to the side. Blair waited patiently, ignoring the stabbing pain behind his eyes that he knew to be the vision attempting to hijack his brain again. He already knew what was going wrong, he didn’t need to be told to hurry.

“He’s up there.” Jim pointed as he pushed Blair towards the other building. “Get Sanchez, I’ve got Juno.”

Blair nodded once and turned for the apartment building. He tossed off one instruction. “Keep your head together, Ellison and bring him down alive!”

Jim never acknowledged him, but then he wouldn’t have noticed it. He was already at a dead run, into the stairwell and up the stairs. He reached Beverly’s apartment and pounded on the door, the screaming of the cat loud in his ears.

o-O-o

Jim ran up the four flights of stairs, taking them three risers at a time. He paused to catch his breath at the landing, and then inched around the boxes that obscured his vision of the Irish assassin.

Across the way, easily visible to both of them Beverly is drying her hair and reaching to pick up the phone that must have been ringing.

A click signals to Jim that Juno is committed, he is focused on his shot and isn't paying attention to anything behind him. Jim reaches for his gun and moves stealthily forward, face grim. Juno was not going to get the chance to kill another law official in this city.

o-O-o

Blair pounded on the door to the apartment, his face set in a grim expression of concern and outright fear.

“Beverly, open the door!” There was no answer from the other side.

The panther’s call galvanized him into action as he slammed into the door, breaking it open and rushing inside. Beverly had just picked up the phone when he saw the laser sight. His arms wrapped around her quickly as he bore her down just before the shattered glass announced the arrival of the near fatal bullet.

“Stay Down!” he yelled as she shivered in fear.

o-O-o

Jim released a soundless sigh of relief as Blair managed to get Beverly clear in time, then he prepared to pounced. But apparently the soundless sigh wasn't soundless enough. Juno heard it, turned and raised a small handgun that had been previously concealed. Jim cursed and dove out of the way, dropping his own piece as he did.

Juno started to fire as soon as he'd had the gun leveled and he didn't stop until the clip clicked on empty. Jim hearing the telltale sound smiled fiercely, and burst out of hiding. Juno threw away the now useless gun and met him head on. Using all the hand to hand techniques the Rangers had trained him in and some that he had picked up from some less savory sources Jim still had to struggle a bit to subdue Juno, but finally he slammed the other man's head into the wall, dazing him and then when he fell, into the floor knocking him out cold.

Swaying a bit in the aftermath himself, Jim managed to cuff the unconscious assassin before he too sat down heavily and looked across the way to see first Blair, and then Beverly stand in the light and look at the mess that had been left behind.

Jim pulled out his cell phone and dialed Beverly’s phone, smiling as Blair picked up the phone.

 _*#”Jim, man, this better be you.”#*_ the grad student peered into the darkness, like he was trying to get a fix on Jim in the other building.

“Yeah Chief… I got him.” Jim smiled indulgently.

 _*#”Please tell me he’s alive.”#*_

Jim sighed. “As ordered.” Was the reply before he stood, preparing to drag his suspect down the four flights of stairs to the ground.

o-O-o

Blair sat in the uncomfortable police visitor chair and babied his throbbing head. Oh man it was getting worse. It had been fairly mild when they were waiting for Juno to get picked up and Beverly thanked them, Blair had thought he had more than enough time, even with dealing with all the preliminary reports and other official crap to get something to deal with it before coming back to the station here. But then all that wild shit had gone down at the sushi bar he had asked Jim and the Captain to stop at for him and things just mushroomed.

This brought him to now as he sat in the break room, a cup of coffee in his hand and his head leaning on his arm as he closed his eyes against the harsh florescent lights overhead. He winced as the door opened, his eyes opening to mere slits to see Carolyn slip inside. Noting the look of concern, he tried to smile briefly.

“Hey Carolyn, what’s up?”

Carolyn smiled just as briefly before sitting next to him at the table. “You look like hell, what happened?”

Blair sighed as he dropped his head a bit lower. "Oh, I have got a headache that just isn't gonna quit going on. Then on top of that I got to watch your ex and the Captain get potshots taken at them by someone who looked like Juno, except we already caught Juno!"

Carolyn nodded once as she rested a hand on his shoulder. “Oh, well you know that is kinda what I am here about - the blood splatter on the street by the sushi bar, it was fresh so it must have been from the guy who Jim wounded.”

Blair sat up straight in his seat, waving at Carolyn to carry on. She smiled and did so. “So we ran a DNA test and ran it against the results from Tommy Juno.”

“And?” Blair asked unnecessarily.

“And,” Carolyn grinned at him, “They are a match. The DNA’s the same.”

Blair blinked. “That’s impossible.”

Carolyn shrugged. “That’s what we got, the bands are identical.”

Blair sat back in his seat, his mind swirling with the complexity of it all. "Hunh."

"Very academic response there Sandburg." Carolyn teased. Blair shot her a pained look, but said nothing. Just contemplated what she had said.

Finally, he turned back to Carolyn. “Help me with this a moment. We have a guy who shoots Danny, while he’s at a charity event across town. Then this guy shoots at Beverly…”

Carolyn took it up to help him clarify. “Jim catches this guy, we book him and put him in processing while you watch Jim and Simon get shot at down the street… and the blood at the scene matches the guy in lock-up.”

Blair locked eyes with the forensics tech. “So… that could mean one of two things. Juno is a clone, or he's an identical twin which is just a naturally born clone.”

Carolyn snickered. “Um, somehow I’m thinking the first isn’t so likely in this event. But I hadn’t entertained the second just yet.”

Blair grinned at the woman as he stood and gestured that she leave the room with him. “We need to tell Jim about this, fast. If Juno is a twin, that could mean his brother is still out there. Hell what am I saying, of course he is.”

Carolyn nearly walked right into Ellison as the man met them at the door, his eyes wide in disbelief. Blair knew he had heard their conversation and was puzzling the pieces to fit.

“How much did you hear?” Carolyn asked. Jim’s penetrating look at Blair was answered with a shrug.

“Enough to confuse the hell out of me.” Jim answered as he turned and walked towards the bullpen with Carolyn beside him. Blair trailed along behind them, coffee still in hand

Jim’s phone rang before they reached the Major Crimes doors. Jim answered it gruffly. “Ellison.”

He stopped dead in his tracks, his gaze flickering to Blair briefly before turning towards the doors and pushing them open with much more force than necessary. Blair followed close on his heels and slipped into the cop’s chair as Jim snapped his fingers and pointed at the screen.

“Right, got it.” Jim finished the call and snapped the phone shut. “That was booking. The prints on this guy do not match Tommy, so it looks like your theory is correct Sandburg. The question, who the hell is this guy and where’s Tommy Juno?”

o-O-o

Simon sat behind his desk, his cigar clamped tightly in his teeth, his frustration evident on his face. “You said twins?”

Jim sat across from him. “Identical,” he muttered. Simon scowled.

“Then who do we have down in lock up?”

Blair, who sat next to Jim, shrugged and winced as his headache reached him again. Carolyn reached around his shoulder and handed him a couple of aspirin, which he took with a nod. Jim growled.

“That would be the question of the hour, Simon.”

Simon reached out, snagged his phone with one hand and took the cigar out of his mouth with the other. He stabbed at the buttons on the phone then turned back to the receiver. Then when the other end was picked up he barked,

“Yeah, Banks here. We have a Juno in custody only it’s not Tommy. Think you could see clear to sending us the pertinent files? Thanks ever so much.” Then he hung up without saying anything else.

In moments, his fax machine began to rattle and hum, then spit out a couple of pages for Simon to gather up and read aloud.

“Well according to this, Tommy Juno was born in a little town in Northern Ireland called Dungiven.” He glanced up when Jim snatched the paper from him impatiently. Blair oogled in surprise, but Simon being Simon let it go with a stern growl. Jim ignored him as he continued reading.

“In 1967 a woman named Sara Juno died during childbirth at home. Her husband was I.R.A. and wanted by the cops over there. Means no hospital and no birth certificate. But all the locals remember her giving birth to twins. Identical.”

Blair reached for the sheet. “What were the names?”

Jim glanced at the sheet. “Tommy and Dylan.”

Carolyn leaned forward. “It’s not uncommon for identical twins to have matching DNA gene strands but different fingerprints.”

Simon’s narrowed gaze conveyed his surprise at that but he felt compelled to add on an, “I’ll be damned…” as he sat down at his desk again.

Jim nodded in that curt fashion of his before returning to the fax paper he held in his hand. “In ’68, Juno’s father was killed in a shootout. The brothers were adopted by different families and as adults they tracked each other down. Then they moved to the US to begin working as free-lance hitmen.”

Jim glanced at Blair and Carolyn. Carolyn caught the puzzle piece that was floating and ran with it. “They kept their double identities a secret and Tommy always had an ironclad alibi for his hits!”

“So the man we have in lock up is really Dylan Juno… wow, that’s one hell of a gimmick.” Simon replied, suitably impressed. Blair snorted behind his curtain of hair.

“A gimmick that we have nipped in the bud, as it were. We have half the team downstairs, caught red-handed.”

Jim nodded once, then began to frown. “Yeah we have him, but we have to have both of them. Tommy’s still out there. And, if that attack on the sushi bar is any indication, he’s pissed that we have his brother in custody.”

o-O-o

Jim and Blair walked down the hallway towards interrogation, each man thinking his own thoughts. Blair grumbled as they walked, his head still aching from the flashback visions he suffered from only an hour ago. Something was still begging for his attention and it was only a matter of time before the danger was upon them again.

Jim stopped, his hand on the door handle when Simon barged in from the end of the hall. “Jim, we just got a tip about a shooting at O’Toole’s trucking. We need to get there ASAP! Let’s roll.”

Jim nodded once, handed Blair the file he had been carrying and hurried off to follow his captain. Blair stood floundering for a moment, unsure as to where he should go and what he should do. Another moment and Jim poked his head around the corner again, glaring at Blair.

“You coming Chief?” he asked. Blair nodded and took off down the hall towards his Sentinel.

o-O-o

Blair shut the truck door with a resounding thunk as he followed Jim and Simon towards the warehouse. Simon glanced back at him a moment.

“Look, Sandburg, this is a crime scene. I don’t want you touching anything.” He snarled at the young man. Blair’s gaze widened a moment, the narrowed in defiance.

“Look, Banks, I’m an anthropologist. I’ve done excavation work and that is much more delicate than fresh crime scenes. You still have to be careful what you touch. Only in a dig, you have to be wary of things disintegrating on you, not just contamination.”

Jim listened to the by-play of his captain and his… companion. He had to side with Blair on this one though for the simple fact that the kid had already shown he was capable of staying out of harm’s way when the need warranted. Banks seemed to take Jim’s silence as agreement with the anthropologist and backed off a stretch.

Blair moved to follow Jim, Simon leading them both. Keeping his head down and watching his feet, he slammed into the wall that was Ellison as the man had suddenly stopped behind his captain. Simon’s voice floated back to them both.

“Kid, you may have been on expeditions and to excavations, and seen bodies before, but I don't think dried up old husks can really prepare you for what's in here. I’ll say this once. You might want to stay back at the truck.” Jim glanced over Simon’s shoulder and turned back to Blair.

“I think the Captain’s right this time, Sandburg. I know you’ve seen some stuff… but this is… well…” His voice trailed off. Blair snuck a look around Simon, caught sight of the first bullet ridden body and blanched. His voice thick with nausea, coupled with his massive headache, he decided that both men were most likely right in this instance.

“Yeah, I’ll… um… yeah, I’ll be in the truck if you need me Jim.” And then he was gone, beating a hasty retreat back to the parking lot before he lost what little food was left in his stomach. Slipping into the passenger seat, he closed the door against the sights and sounds of the officers and lab techs crawling over the warehouse and its gruesome scene inside. He really didn’t want to think for a while.

What he needed, he thought with a wince as another shaft of pain bored through his skull, was to get rid of this headache. Then he actually might feel more useful.

His hand moved to swipe his hair out of his face when he felt fur brush against his fingers. Opening his eyes to mere slits, he saw the wolf and the panther, both curled up in the truck, surrounding him and comforting him. “This is the part of his job that sucks, you know? Dead people in bloody pools, riddled with holes. Gods, when did I get to be so morbidly poetic?”

The panther grumbled a bit as he laid his head on Blair’s knee, tongue flicking out to lick his hand. The wolf leaned against him, keeping him upright and allowing him to sag just a bit. Both animals felt warm and alive, their hearts thumping in tandem so loudly that Blair could hear it. He smiled as he stroked first the wolf and then the panther, amazed that in just a few moments of being in their presence, that his headache was mostly gone. He sighed.

He blinked when they vanished right before Jim opened the driver’s side door and climbed into the truck. He glanced over in surprise. “Done already?”

“We need to talk to Juno, the one we have in custody.” Jim threw the truck in drive and then peeled out. Blair sat back with a blank look on his face and held on for the ride.

“Oh… okay then.” He muttered as they headed back.

o-O-o

Jim paced the interrogation room, the table firmly between himself and Dylan Juno, who sat in his chair with an almost serene look upon his face. In the observation room, on the other side of the glass, Simon watched the pair intently, Blair nervously chewing his thumbnail beside the big man.

Simon glared at his best detective through the glass, his voice low as he muttered. “I hope Jim keeps his head in the game while he’s in there. We need Juno in one ‘viable’ piece.”

Blair flashed him a sardonic look before returning his attention to the two men inside. “You were the one to let him in there alone, Sir,” he muttered back as he watched the detective pace, marveling at how much the man resembled his animal spirit at this moment. Juno appeared truly clueless as to the danger he was facing at this moment.

He blinked when Jim suddenly stopped moving, his back to the glass as he faced Juno. He listened to the tin-ny quality of the voice through the speakers as Jim finally spoke. “Your brother is still out there, Juno. Most likely has given you up as a lost cause. Getting caught like this, it was never in either one of yours plans, was it?”

“My brother will come for me.” Dylan replied. “Blood is thicker than anything.”

Jim turned away from him, gazing through the glass and seeming to meet Blair’s eyes with his own. “Sometimes family isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Look at your Dad, not preparing for the worst, getting shot and leaving you and your brother to deal with different families.”

“We survived,” Dylan muttered. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “We found each other again. We always do.”

“And now, you’re going to prison… how long do you think Tommy’s going to wait for you? Five, ten years before he gives up and moves on?” Jim smirked as he turned back to the man.

“You don’t know my brother,” hissed Dylan just as Jim’s phone rang. Simon snarled something unintelligible as he banged out of the observation room and into the interrogation room to listen in on the call. Blair remained where he was, listening through the speakers.

“Ellison.” Jim answered curtly. He put the phone on speaker.

 _*#“Damn you, Ellison. He’s more than just my brother. He’s the other half of my soul!”#*_ Jim turned to Simon and mouthed ‘Juno’ to the man. Dylan moved to sit forward and call out until Jim gave him a look that said it was not a good idea. Blair’s head began to throb again. Jim snickered.

“Tommy, buddy… pal. Look, I guess you figured out I got your brother. So why don’t you turn yourself in and we can carry on with life, eh?” Dylan moved as if to protest and Simon shushed him without a word, just an upraised finger. Tommy continued on the other end of the line.

 _*#”How’s about you say hello to a friend of yours Ellison. Let’s see if she’s as important to you as Dylan is to me, eh?”#*_ There was the sound of scuffling on the line and then another voice came on. _*#”Jim? It’s Beverly. I was just…”#*_

Juno cut her off by pulling the phone back to himself and speaking once more. _*#”That’s enough, I think you get the point. I have something you want, and you have my brother. Meet me at the fairgrounds on the midway in 30 minutes. I see any other cops but you and she dies.”#*_

He hung up immediately, leaving Jim to stare at the phone as Simon fumed and left the room. Dylan glared at the cop. “I told’ja he wouldn’t leave me here.”

Blair sighed as he held his head, the throbbing was getting worse. He just knew this was all going to end badly. He muttered just loud enough for Jim to hear, “Players upon players, moves upon moves... man this case is like a funhouse on acid. Makes me glad to have been an only child anyway even if it was to an unconventional kind of mom.”

Jim glanced at him with equal parts confusion and laughter flickering across his face.

o-O-o

The fairgrounds appeared empty to the naked eye, but Blair knew better. He sat stiffly in the van, Dylan Juno sitting behind and to his right. Jim had just walked onto the midway while Blair sat in the driver’s seat, waiting for the signal to drive closer. He glanced over his shoulder at the hit man. He knew it was stupid, Juno was a killer. But on the off chance it might help, Blair had to try, even if Juno didn't care about what Blair had to say. Leaving things as they were just wasn't an option.

"You and your brother think you're hot stuff don't you? Thinking up this bait and switch scheme in order to get away with killing people for what - money? Killing just for profit and thrills?" Blair hissed in the captive Juno's ear. Dylan didn't say anything, but he shifted uncomfortably.

"You think killing that cop was fun? Are you pleased with yourself? I mean it takes a big man to kill someone who was just a kid really, not more than 25 years old... or maybe a bit older. Real big." Blair was scathing. Juno appeared unfazed.

The panther hissed and Blair sat up straighter, the time was close now. He poked one more time for good measure, "You and your brother thought you were untouchable, but Jim caught you. Think about it, and now your brother is out there trying to rescue your sorry ass from doing the time you both deserve to serve. Your genius brother kidnapped the DA to try to get you back... oh and that cop, the kid, he was like Jim's little brother. Like you are to Tommy, so why shouldn't he kill you so Tommy can know how he feels?"

Each thing Blair said seemed to impact on Dylan Juno, until he finally hissed back, "If the kid wasn't supposed to be in the line of fire then he shouldn't have been in the war. In this war, everyone is expendable!"

Blair met the other man's slightly wild eyes with his own, which were calm as the deepest sea, and replied with an unnerving calm tone, "If this is war, you are seriously outnumbered and unarmed."

Juno edged as far away from the grad student as he could get freaked right the hell out. Blair kept his gaze even until he heard the signal from Jim, calling him with a whistle. He turned in his seat and threw the van into drive again, pulling forward to where Jim was waiting. Braking to a halt, he parked the vehicle, then moved from his seat to the sliding door, cranking the handle and sliding it back to reveal the fairgrounds. Dylan peered out into the gloom, looking for his brother.

From the funhouse, they could both hear the voice of Tommy Juno ring out. “Dylan, is that you?”

Blair nudged Dylan who blurted out, “Yeah Tommy, I’m right here!”

“Are you all right?” called the brother in shadow. Dylan nodded his head slowly as he glanced over at Blair, who was doing his best impression of a calm ocean. Blair leaned in closer and hissed in his ear.

“You better answer him so he can hear you. If Sanchez dies, it’ll be on your head… for the pitiful amount of time left in your miserable life once Ellison get’s hold of you.”

“Fine, Tommy!” called the other man to his unseen brother. “Everything is fine.”

Blair nodded once to show that he was pleased with the response and Dylan turned back to wait for further instructions. Tommy called to Jim. “You send him over here.”

Jim shook his head. “Uh-uh. You send out Sanchez. Then I’ll send Dylan over at the same time.”

There was silence from the funhouse and Blair took a deep breath to steady himself, his nervousness threatening to break his perfect outward calm. Finally, the door swung open a bit further and they could all see Beverly standing in the entrance, her hands held up in caution. Jim nodded once and Blair nudged Dylan out of the van, one hand on his elbow as he waited.

When Beverly started walking towards them, Blair released his hold on Dylan and the hit man stepped towards the funhouse. The two people passed each other on the path, but Dylan reached out at the last minute and shoved the woman to the ground before sprinting the last few feet to the funhouse. Beverly went down and stayed down, covering her head with her hands.

Jim rushed forward, Blair hot on his heels. While the cop raced for the funhouse, Blair stopped to help Beverly to her feet and then to the relative safety of the van. He glanced back just as Jim was opening the door.

“Jim,” he muttered mostly to himself, “Those two are out to pay a deadly game. You better keep your head or you will lose.”

He noticed Jim cock his head slightly to the side and knew that the big man had heard him. Once Jim was inside, Blair turned his attention back to Beverly, while praying to all the gods he knew that Jim would be all right without him.

o-O-o

Jim cautiously walked into the near darkness of the funhouse. He paused just inside the doorway to adjust to the dimness now surrounding him. He reached out and rested his hand on the wooden frame of the door, and stood silent for what seemed a very long period of time.

The Juno twins were huddled together in a corner near the funhouse’s mirrors room. Their voices near silent in the shadows as they discussed their options in hushed whispers. Tommy was trying to call the shots, but Dylan wasn’t too happy with his brother’s slipshod planning.

“Dylan, you go that way, and I’ll take this path. He can’t find both of us in the dark.” Tommy glanced over to the door, hoping perhaps to get a glimpse of Jim. Dylan laid a cautionary hand on his brother’s arm.

“This man, Tommy. He’s not to be trifled with.” Dylan sounded a bit nervous about tangling with Jim. Tommy scowled but nodded once.

“Aye, we should take him out once and for all. But first, we need a better vantage point. Let’s go.” With that, they both raised to a crouch and struck off in opposite directions.

Jim in the meantime had been waiting with his head cocked to side in the pose he favors for listening. Then there is a moment where he seems to lose his focus, his expression going from intent to vague. It doesn’t last long as Jim shakes it off and mutters to himself distractedly, “No no, not now… keep it together… remember what Sandburg said, it’s all in my head.”

A few more tension filled minutes passed, and then Jim was moving into the shadows. His steps becoming surer, and his hands steadier, the further he went into the labyrinth the funhouse was made up of. Navigating the twisting turns with an eerie aplomb, he takes his time. There is no rush now.

Jim finds Dylan Juno first, crouched down with his back to the silently approaching detective. Jim pounced. Grabbing the man he lifted and turned him around with one hand, the other came around in a punishing haymaker to the face. Juno goes down without a sound, knocked out cold. Jim smiles grimly in satisfaction.

It doesn’t take him long to secure his first prisoner to a lead pipe with his cuffs, and then used the man’s own handkerchief as a gag to keep him silent. Then he is off again, stalking the shadows much like his spirit animal would in the jungles of home. Pausing here and there as he loped confidently through the building to make sure he was still on the right track using the cues he picked up with his senses. All of a sudden a sly grin crossed his face, and Jim began to make a roundabout circuit to the room of mirrors. He was rounding the last corner with gun firmly in hand when Tommy called out

“Brother, are you all right?” It’s a near whisper, but enough for Jim to hear as he moves counter to the other man’s movements. Stalking his prey - gun in one hand, the other curling up into a fist.

Tommy calls again. “Dylan! Where are ya?”

“Sorry, he got tired of waiting for you…” Jim snarled as he rose up out of the shadows. Tommy Juno spun around at the other man’s words - directly into the right cross that Jim swung. He like his brother fell to the ground, out cold after one heavy punch. Jim sighed as he holstered his gun and began to mutter to Tommy as he cuffed him.

“You have the right to remain silent, anything you say, can and will be used against you in a court of law…”

o-O-o

Blair smiled in relief as Jim walked away from the officers who were tucking the Junos into their police cars for the journey back to the station. He had been so nervous to have Jim in the funhouse on his own, but when the big man had returned to daylight, dragging one Juno and jerking his thumb over his shoulder to indicate where the other one was, Blair knew that it had all come out right in the end.

Now, after the preliminary verbal reports and the official arresting of the two assassins’, Jim was walking back to Blair with a smile on his face. Blair bounced slightly. It had been a tough case, a lot of things could have gone wrong. But now everything was done but the paperwork. Beverly Sanchez had an ironclad case against the brothers. Jim had managed to control his senses in the funhouse. And Blair… well Blair wasn’t certain what this meant for him.

Jim stopped in front of him, eyes falling to half mast as he peered at his companion. “Chief? You ok?”

Blair ducked his head a moment to regain his composure. There was that doubt again, that tale-tell feeling that he was doing something wrong, that he wasn’t cut out for this job as Companion. Hell, this was supposed to be a fact-finding job, he was supposed to be using Jim as a research subject, not becoming his friend. He smiled brightly, the expression forced by sheer willpower.

“Fine man. Good job catching them without a shot. I think Danny would have been proud.”

Jim nodded. “I remembered what you said about grounding, so I distracted myself a bit and used hearing. Did you know I can hear heartbeats? And every heart beats the same, even the Juno twins. I was able to figure out where they were, followed the sound and caught them.”

Blair grinned, his eyes gleaming. “Great man. See I knew you could control it.” He looked up when he saw Beverly coming their way. “Well, knowing that the faithful companion’s most important job is knowing when to get lost, I’ll see you later man. Call me if you need me.”

If Jim was going to say anything, Blair never knew. He was walking away just as fast as he could towards the entrance to the fairgrounds. As he reached the gates, he realized that he had no way of getting home, and he despaired for a moment about finding a cab all the way out here. He was debating turning back and asking one of the Uniforms for a ride when a silver sedan came to a stop next to him. The driver side window rolled down and Carolyn Plummer sat smiling at him. “Hey Blair. I heard you wanted to get an interview with me for your dissertation on the close societies. And it looks like you’ve been abandoned by Jim, so how’s about you and I have dinner and we can talk.”

Blair smiled as he moved around the car to the passenger side. One settled into the seat with the door closed, Blair turned to Carolyn and smiled. “Thanks Lieutenant, I really appreciate this.”

“Sure thing, and call me Carolyn… or Caro. Jim does.” She smiled as she started the car off to a decent place to eat. Blair sighed. At least he could finish another chapter in his dissertation… either of them, for that matter. He hoped that Jim was having a good time. After all the hell he had been through, the big guy deserved a break.

o-O-o

It was late by the time Blair finally managed to return to his warehouse home. Larry greeted him when he walked in frantic and Blair realized belatedly that he hadn’t left any food out for the poor guy. He made his way over to the fridge and took out a bowl of fruit for his ‘house’ guest, and a cold bottle of beer for himself.

“Man, I really need to get that paper written up so I can send you home, eh buddy?” Blair said to the little Barbary ape as he handed him the bowl with the fruit. Larry though wasn’t paying him any attention now that he had some food. Blair laughed, ‘Yep, that’s the way it always seems to go isn’t it. I have my uses and then when they aren’t needed anymore, back into the woodwork I go.’

Shaking his head in bemusement, Blair wandered over to his couch and sat down. His hand nudged something on the seat beside him and looking down Blair saw that it was his journal. Hunh, he hadn’t written anything in the thing since this whole sorry case with the Junos’ had started. He flipped to the last page and read over what he’d been thinking and feeling.

Thinking about what had gone down during the last few days and rereading what he had written had Blair understanding that eventually he was going to have to make a decision. He was going to need to set his priorities, find his limits, see exactly what it was that he was willing to do when things got hairy. Did he have what it took to be a cop? Was he even supposed to stay on as Jim’s partner, with or without the dissertation? Hell, was he meant to change so dramatically?

No. He didn’t think so. He was an Anthropologist for Christ’s sake, he wasn’t meant to carry a weapon! He was a teacher, a nurturer - not a warrior. This path was leading him so far away from his chosen profession, it was asking him to give up his long held morals and beliefs. It was wrong! But how if it was so wrong, did it feel at the same time so right?

To be at Jim’s side, to be his partner, helping him and ‘guiding’ him made his heart sing. But the other stuff – the gun stuff, the sheer violence – that wasn’t him. Maybe if that was needed he wasn’t meant to be with Jim like this, no matter how right it felt. Blair sighed.

This wasn’t his path. He wasn’t ready, hell he might never be ready to be what was needed to be a full and suitable partner for Jim. The necessary changes he would have to undertake in his outlook, the sheer amount of adaptation, it was staggering. That decided him, tomorrow he would have to start thinking seriously on two courses of action.

He would either have to find someone who could take over the Companion job for the Sentinel from him, or he would have to find some way of helping Jim to shut his senses off – or at least down to what is considered ‘human normal’. He had his own job and responsibilities, he couldn’t live in a land of ‘what if?’ or ‘what might have been’. He had his life, and with no further distractions, he would live it.

His mind made up, Blair got up and started his nighttime routine. Locking all the doors and setting the extra security measures into active status. Making sure Larry’s cage was clean and the little ape was settled in snug for the night, then his own ablutions, after which he rapidly crawled into bed and turned off the lights.

He was so tired and heart weary, that he fell asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow. He never noticed the two dejected spirit animals sitting in his living room looking at him mournfully. Deeply asleep he didn’t see as they looked at each other with heavy gazes and huff in disagreement, or the knowing look that also passed between them as they vanished soundlessly into the night.  



End file.
